The Aftermath
by Myhoniahaka
Summary: Sasuke watched as Madara destroyed the world. He watched as it burned around him. He watched as everything he knew and hated got destroyed. What he didn't watch was Naruto. That was why, when he started paying attention again, feelings that should have been repressed came spiraling back.
1. Chapter 1

Kyuubi was at it again.

Naruto shuddered as the chakra spread from his heart to the rest of his body. He felt it swirling through his fingertips, and in a pitiful attempt to reign it in, he curled his arms around his stomach and clenched his eyes so tight they might have burst. The familiar, painful growth of his teeth and nails erupted through his body, and Naruto gave a half scream before biting his tongue.

The fangs and claws were the worst part. It was as if his mouth and fingers were morphing into something unnatural.

He fought back with a burst of his own chakra. Kyuubi couldn't win again. He wouldn't let it. That demon caused more problems than it was worth, and Naruto couldn't let it beat him again. Not when there was no one left in the world who could fix the seal. Jiraiya was the last known person who had a decent understanding of fuinjutsu, and now that he was gone, there was no one else.

And that was how it began.

It started so slowly Naruto barely thought of it. Sometimes Sakura mentioned how his eyes flashed red, but that only lasted for a second. So it wasn't important. The night terrors were also irrelevant. So what if he saw Kyuubi killing everyone in Konoha? It was only a dream, one that couldn't become a reality because the seal was strong.

Except the seal wasn't strong, and by the time they figured that out, it was much too late.

He killed four people that day.

And every time the guilt ravaged him for it, Kyuubi put a sense of hatred into his heart that made the guilt dissipate.

It was cruel.

"Stop it." He said.

Right now, Kyuubi wasn't a horrible problem. It hadn't gone that far just yet. _He_ was still in control. _He_ knew what was happening.

But could he keep it up for long?

Of course he could. He was Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage.

Except he couldn't.

He fell to his knees with a scream, clutching his head and bending down until his elbows were on the ground. How many times was it this month? Three? Four? He couldn't remember. The ANBU never talked to him after it happened. They only showed up at his door and surrounded him before dragging him to the T and I department. They never hurt him unless he hurt them, but they did keep him locked up until Naruto stopped snarling at them. He could never remember anything that happened when Kyuubi took over, only that by the end of it, there was blood on arms, body, and clothes—none of it belonging to him—and the bitter taste of iron filled his mouth.

He never saw the blood on his teeth because Tsunade forced him to rinse his mouth before he could look in a mirror. She even kept him blindfolded so he couldn't see the crimson water he spat out.

His door slammed open with an explosive bang, and several mask wearing ANBU had him surrounded in seconds. Naruto hadn't fully succumbed to Kyuubi's power. Not yet, and not for several minutes. He always fought back just long enough for them to capture him. So he let their prying hands grab him by the shoulders and lock his hands and legs together with chains. The overwhelming hate in his body was desperate to kill them for it, but by now he'd learned the difference between his emotions and Kyuubi's.

And this hate wasn't his. This hate was different, more bloodthirsty, than Naruto had ever felt.

But although he learned that difference, he had yet to learn how to fight Kyuubi off completely.

The ANBU dragged him onto his feet. Their gentleness with him stopped around the third time it happened, so now they didn't hesitate to leave bruises or break his bones. Anything it took to ensure Kyuubi didn't kill any of them.

It never worked.

They didn't even make it to the door when Naruto's vision went red.

Xxx

Naruto peeled his eyes open, a grunt leaving his lips as he tried to move. It felt as though someone glued his eyes shut, and there was a horrible burning throughout his body. His arms and wrists were aching with a fierce pressure, and he jerked one of his arms up, listening to the clank of metal before realization dawned on him. It was too dark to see, but he could only assume the worst. So Naruto licked his teeth in a poor attempt to get rid of the extra liquid filling his mouth. There was something wet stuck to them, something that tasted familiar and bitter.

Blood.

He sighed.

_So it happened again._

Would Kyuubi ever stop?

**No**.

_Fuck you. _

There was no answer.

Naruto gave a frustrated moan. He absolutely hated this. Couldn't his dad have chosen another child? Someone who was better at controlling demons? Who could handle it better than him?

The soft sound of footsteps penetrated his ears, and Naruto whipped his head to the cage the ANBU forced him in. He wondered how many were dead, and whose blood the red on his hands belonged to. It was a miracle they didn't keep him locked up forever. He'd already lost his status as a hero of Konoha, and was now back to being the regular demon. Not that he blamed them for that. Even his friends were wary of him, and this time, they had a real reason for that.

Naruto was a killer to his own people. He deserved that hate.

"This is the sixth time this month."

Naruto let his gaze wander upwards. Tsunade stood on the other side of the bars, as elegant and drunk as she could be. Her hair wasn't tied in two pig tails today, and Naruto was surprised to see that her hair went halfway down her back.

"Sixth?"

That was more than usual.

Tsunade didn't smile. The bags under her eyes only grew heavier the more Naruto lost control. There was so much paperwork she had to fill out to keep him from being locked up forever, and Naruto wouldn't be surprised if that paperwork failed to go through with the council soon.

Though, it wasn't as though the council could do anything. They were there to advise, not to control.

"I'm... reluctant to let you go right now." She said, "so you'll be here for a couple weeks. But don't worry. I'll make sure you're treated well."

No. No. No. This was one of the primary fears he had. Yes, it made sense. Naruto needed to be locked up for the protection of everyone in Konohagakure. But he was going to be locked up. In chains. In a dark and dreary cell. That was the worst case scenario. The last resort, and Naruto wasn't ready for it.

He would _never_ be ready for it.

Except he wasn't a real prisoner. Just someone who happened to be here by mistake. Maybe they'd give him bedding and light. They'd never take off the chains, of course. That would be much too risky. But he wasn't a real prisoner. They couldn't treat him like one.

So he nodded. Tsunade was kind, and she loved him. She would make sure his treatment was none other than perfect. Yes, he would be locked up. But it wouldn't be horrible, and it was only for a couple of weeks.

"So you understand?" Tsunade said, "please tell me you understand."

Her hands were clasped onto the bars, face a mixture of guilt and devastation. If her reaction didn't tell him that he would be treated well, then nothing would. So he let his muscles relax. There was nothing to worry about. The next couple of weeks would be hard. But after that? They'd have found a way to reign in Kyuubi's chakra, and Naruto would be set free.

"Of course." He said with a smile, "it's only a couple of weeks, right?"

Her shoulders sagged. "Yes. Only a couple weeks. Ibiki will fill you in on what to expect."

Naruto nodded, and she ordered some guy to unlock the doors so she could give a proper goodbye. There was a limp to her step as she walked over to him, and Naruto had to wonder if he hurt her. It was incredibly possible, and the guilt nagged at his chest for it.

But he didn't have time to mull over that guilt, because Tsunade kneeled down next to him and intertwined their fingers together. Tears formed in her eyes as she used her other hand to cup his cheek, and before long, her forehead was pressed against his.

_What the hell?_

Tsunade never pressed their foreheads together.

"I'm so sorry." She said, "for everything."

Naruto cocked his head. Sorry for what? Having to imprison him for several weeks? It wasn't as though he didn't deserve it. Yes, it would be hard, and it might even be the most difficult part of his life so far. Naruto certainly didn't cope well with isolation, but if it meant Konoha was protected, then it was worth it in the end.

So why was she so worried? And why was she crying?

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll find someone to fix the seal in the coming weeks."

Tsunade bit her lip and separated their foreheads. Her eyes were a light brown, and all Naruto could see in them was worry.

And now that Naruto got a good look at her, he realized she looked absolutely horrible. Her hair was frazzled and her clothes were wrinkled. The bags under her eyes were far worse up close than they were far away. How much had she been sleeping? It couldn't have possibly been enough.

"Everything will be alright." Naruto said.

The blood on his teeth made the words sound slippery, but he ignored that little fact. Tsunade was worried. And why wouldn't she be? She was locking Naruto up for God's sake! He'd be crying if he had to lock any one of his friends up. So why did Naruto even question that? Tsunade was just worried and desperate and lost for what to do with him.

"Really. No hard feelings. I understand."

But Tsunade didn't take comfort in that, because she broke down crying.

**She's not acting right. **

_She's locking me up. Give her a break. _

**Tsunade Sannin doesn't break down for locking a threat away for only a couple of weeks. **

Naruto gave a wry chuckle, one filled with nervousness. Kyuubi couldn't have been right. Tsunade was only human, after all. There was only so much she could take. And it wasn't as though she would lie to him. She would never do that.

Right?

"It's... only a couple weeks, right?"

Tsunade sniffled and looked up at him with puffy, red eyes.

"Yeah. Just a couple weeks."

Her voice was hoarse, but that much crying couldn't cause those kinds of voice problems. So what else could it be? Had she been injured? Was she lying as Kyuubi thought?

No. Tsunade wouldn't lie to him. She _never_ lied to him.

"Then you don't have to cry. Besides, you'll visit me, right? It's not like you're never going to see my adorable face again."

She scratched at her eyes, the tears winding down until there were none left, and finally she gave a smile. Her lips were bitten down enough that blood was drawn, and that alone told him that something was seriously wrong.

"You will visit me, won't you?"

Tsunade shook her head, and when she spoke, her voice was a raw whisper. "They promised me you'll be safe here."

Naruto swallowed. What the fuck did that mean? Who was she leaving him with? And why didn't she intend to visit him?

"Hey, what does—"

"I'm sorry."

And she ran off.

He called after her, jerked against the restraints in the hopes of some answers. But these were chakra blocking cuffs. He could only get out of them with physical strength alone.

And these chains were designed to hold down even the strongest ninja. Naruto wasn't excluded in that.

"What the hells going on?" He said.

Adrenaline coursed through his veins, and even Kyuubi started screaming. This wasn't right. Wasn't right at all. Tsunade wasn't supposed to leave him. And why apologize if it was only for a couple weeks? He told her that he understood. She _knew_ that he understood.

Unless it was for longer than she'd explained.

The people outside the cell glanced back at him before looking forward once more. They didn't even bother to talk to him.

"Hey—"

"Prisoners aren't allowed to talk."

Naruto gave them a bewildered look. He wasn't a _real_ prisoner. He was just someone who didn't have proper control of his own powers. That wasn't his fault. Sure he killed a couple people, and maybe the memory loss of that was what made him blind to how much of a problem that was. But this still wasn't right. Tsunade wasn't supposed to keep secrets. Wasn't supposed to _lie_.

He was getting out soon, right?

"Like hell I'll keep silent! Tell me what's going on or I'll rip your throats out."

They didn't answer, and Naruto felt a horrible rage in his chest. One that did not belong to Kyuubi. So he used that rage to push against the chains. His wrists and ankles dripped blood until his hands were soaked, and his skin was so raw that the screams were made for the pain rather than anger.

But they never responded.

He never stopped screaming, though. Never stopped trying to get out. Sometimes he even managed to break the chains, but only ended up with a dart in his throat that left him unconscious for hours.

Tsunade never came back.

* * *

In the coming days Naruto learned the routine. He got two meals a day, which consisted of glob and more glob. It was hard to tell if it was actually food, but Naruto stuffed it down his throat anyways. It kept the piercing hunger pains at bay for a short time.

The guards absolutely hated it when he talked, so he made sure to keep talking as much as possible. If they weren't going to make it easy on him, then he sure as hell wouldn't make it easy for them. And there was nothing they could do about it because Tsunade must have given orders to keep him unharmed.

And that was what they did.

The food may have been awful and the chains ripped into his skin every time he tried to break free, but they kept him in top condition.

But as the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, Naruto found that he was to tired to scream and thrash and retaliate, and he slowly stopped fighting back as much.

The only voice he ever heard was Kyuubi's, and even then, the demon only talked to him every now and again.

So by the time a man with swirling red eyes stood outside his cell, Naruto thought nothing of it.

That was until he heard the man's voice.

"Naruto..."

* * *

And another story rises. I know. I have too many. Though I think this one's gonna take priority for a little while.


	2. Chapter 2

He didn't know what to think at first. Those swirling red eyes were awfully familiar, and so was that voice. Naruto didn't know how long he had been in this cell, only that he _sometimes_ got two moldy meals a day and almost no human contact. The guards often told him to shut up when he started talking to himself. Or to Kyuubi. Sometimes he talked to both himself _and_ Kyuubi. They didn't appreciate that.

And this was a guard that Naruto was not familiar with.

"Are you just going to sit there?" The man said.

Naruto smacked his lips. His throat was so dry. Sometimes water was even scarcer than food. The guards said that was because they wanted Naruto to keep silent, and a dry throat was an excellent way to accomplish that.

Not like it changed anything, though. Dry throat or not, Naruto liked to talk even when no one answered. Sure, it was frustrating to have no one listen to him. But at least this way he kept a sense of normalcy.

Naruto talked a lot in the old life. It was hard to remember that life now. There were colors of pink and gold and brown and white. Every color had a different shade, too. There were no faces that matched the colors, but there were voices. Pink was kind and sweet, although she sometimes got angry, and gold reminded him of a mother. Brown had many voices. One liked food and another was smart. A special shade of brown thanked him for not believing in fate, and white gave wisdom while at the same time left Naruto wondering why he even liked the color.

Then there was black.

Black was cold and dark, but at the same time, it sent Naruto into a whirlwind of warmth. Naruto loved black more than any of the colors, but black seldom had kind words.

Black even tried to kill him a couple times.

"Am I supposed to do something else?" He said.

His arms rested at his sides. He'd been a good prisoner these past few weeks—a quiet one, but Naruto had Kyuubi to thank for that—and the guards thanked him for it by lowering his arms until they were no longer held over his head. His shoulders were torn, though. All that time with them bent at an unnatural angle made them so sore Naruto feared they would never heal.

And it was because of those chains that he didn't do anything but sit here. In the few times he managed to break that horrible, horrible metal, he ended up unconscious until he woke to find lashes on his back and new, stronger chains holding him up.

It was never pleasant.

So this man's question was confusing. What else was he to do? Break out and receive new lashes? He did that a month ago. It was far too soon to try again, especially now that he'd gotten on the guards good side.

"I don't know." The man said, "what do you usually do when a former friend comes to visit you?"

Naruto blinked. He craned his head to the side. Former... friend? Was this man one of the colors that resided within his mind? He closed his eyes and conjured each and every voice. White sounded like a pervert, and this man didn't strike him like that. Besides, white always came with a sense of loss, and Naruto had a feeling that white was no longer around.

Definitely not pink or blonde. And none of the browns matched that voice.

"Oh," Naruto said, "you're the rude one."

Black. Definitely black.

The voices matched perfectly.

Naruto smiled, a small chuckle leaving his lips. "You're my favorite."

Black also hurt the most.

"That's not surprising." The man said, "the guards say I'll be joining you. Isn't that annoying?"

"Not really."

The man narrowed his eyes. Naruto didn't know if joining him meant he was a new guard, or a new cell mate. Sometimes the guards brought someone in and kept a bag over their head. They typically stayed for a couple days before they were taken out and never seen again. Naruto didn't like to talk to them because they always left. It wasn't fair. The one chance he had to make a new friend and they got taken away.

He shook his head. Nothing about this was fair.

He couldn't even remember how he ended up here.

Someone walked up to the man, a guard no doubt, and opened the cell doors before pushing him inside. With his arms tied behind him, the man fell to the ground with a grunt before picking himself up with the grace of a well trained ninja.

"Very annoying." The man said.

The guard went ahead and tied shackles to the man's wrists until he was tied to the wall the same way Naruto was. He didn't put up a fight, which came as a surprise because the voice in his head belonging to black always fought until he could no longer breathe.

Naruto breathed in deeply. This man didn't have a bag over his head. This one must have been different. But the guards surely wouldn't keep him alive for long. They never did. Even if this new prisoner wasn't like the others, Naruto was the only one that they would keep alive.

They had orders after all.

And Naruto, for the life of him, couldn't figure out how he knew that.

"You'll be dead in a few days." Naruto said.

The man looked at him quizzically, as if he couldn't believe what Naruto just said. His red eyes morphed into black, a color that made Naruto want to lean closer to see better.

"It doesn't seem like you care."

"Should I?"

"You always cared before."

Naruto shut his mouth at that. Because it didn't make any sense. He couldn't remember _that _life. He didn't _want _to remember it. But this man, being the voice belonging to the color black, would have known him back then. He knew things about him that Naruto himself didn't know.

And it was too painful. Just thinking about how things used to be made him feel as though someone stabbed him through the chest. He could never remember exactly how he lived in his old life, but he didn't like the feelings that came with trying to remember.

It was better to just forget.

"There's no bag on your head." Naruto muttered.

It wasn't natural, and he wondered what it meant. _All _his cell mates got bags thrown over their heads. Naruto, essentially, made friends with whom he could only remember as a bag. Their faces were so unknown, and their voices never got added to the ones swarming through his head. All he had was the memory of their fear and the way Naruto desperately, desperately wanted, and oftentimes did, to talk to them.

He nibbled on his cheek. This wasn't the kind of person to listen like the other cell mates. Talking wouldn't be nearly as easy or reassuring.

And he _still_ didn't know how he knew that.

The man blinked owlishly as he answered. "Voluntary prisoners don't get bags thrown over their heads.

"Oh."

Did that mean they wouldn't kill him?

"I think I'm a voluntary prisoner." Naruto said, "except I'm not cause no one told me."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Nothing does anymore."

The man narrowed his eyes. He wore a frown that didn't seem to fit. It was deeper than it should have been, far more worried for someone who didn't like Naruto. The crease between his nose furrowed, and his brows were so low he might have been glaring.

"What's wrong with you?"

Naruto craned his head to the side. The seal was what was wrong. He remembered that much.

The problem, however, was that he didn't know what seal had a problem.

"I don't know what that means."

The man jerked his wrists until the chains rattled against each other. Naruto winced at the sound, clenching his eyes because the guards _hated _it when metal clanked against metal. They always yelled and stomped and sometimes, if Naruto was also talking as the chained rattled, they took him to the next room for a whipping.

He swallowed, glancing towards the metal bars. The guard didn't even turn around.

"You're acting weird."

His shoulders sagged. Never in his life had he been so glad to see how unresponsive the guards were at times.

"Hard to be the same, I think." Naruto said, "I can't even pace." He furrowed his brows. "I feel like I would have paced a lot."

The man's eyes stared into his blue as if Naruto was the biggest idiot on this planet, and it made something _tug _inside his stomach. Something familiar and hot and painful and warm.

He shut it down, because that tug was certainly something that Naruto did _not_ want to remember.

That tug was an enemy to his current situation. It would only make him hurt _more. _

"You don't know me, do you?" He said.

Naruto shrugged, pointing his gaze to his lap. "Not really."

And because Naruto had a horrible feeling about this new cell mate, and because he worried that the man would stir something familiar and wonderful and painful, Naruto closed his eyes and let himself fall into the secondary mind of sewage and Kyuubi.

* * *

Sasuke didn't like it.

He knew that it would make this job easier. Naruto having no memory of Konoha, his friends, or Sasuke was certainly convenient. A little too convenient for the circumstances, but convenient nonetheless. But there was something so inherently wrong with it that his gut recoiled. When Naruto looked at him, it was with those same blue eyes. But the look inside them—the glazed, unknowing eyes that saw _through_ him rather than _at_ him— were so wrong and unnatural that he almost flinched.

There was no fight in those eyes. Not anymore.

He supposed that was what would make all of this easier. When Sasuke decided to finally do his job and bring Naruto to Madara, he wouldn't put up much of a fight. Not unless Naruto remembered.

"Are you asleep?" He asked.

Naruto had closed his eyes. Sasuke thought it would only be for a brief moment, that he was just blinking for an extra long time or resting his eyes. But his face relaxed immediately, his shoulders slouching and head lolling to the side.

But he wasn't snoring, and Sasuke remembered quite vividly how loud Naruto was when he slept.

And yet, his eyes did not open.

Sasuke lulled his head back and jerked his wrists a bit. The guard side-eyed him when the chains clanked, but did nothing else.

Sasuke breathed in deeply. He was supposed to capture Naruto and go. His voluntary imprisonment was just a ruse to have easy access to Naruto.

But when Sasuke saw him, he simply wasn't ready to take him in.

Simply couldn't go through with it.

Sasuke clenched his fists. How _pathetic_ was that? Not having the mental capacity to capture Naruto simply because they were friends several years ago. It wasn't like him, and now he was stuck in these chains that blocked his chakra and it would be twice as hard to grab Naruto and leave.

"Idiot." He muttered, "stupid, stupid idiot."

It was rare when Sasuke demeaned himself like that. Normally when he thought about idiots, it was Naruto he was thinking about.

Sasuke focused on the guard. On his way here, he saw only five people. It wasn't nearly enough to hold several prisoners, and Sasuke could kill them without a second thought. Naruto probably wouldn't have any problems with their death. Not if he couldn't remember how _moral_ and _kind_ he used to be.

His throat got clogged with something unfamiliar, and his chest clenched as if someone was squeezing his lungs.

He took a deep breath. It didn't matter that Naruto couldn't remember. That would only make everything easier in the end. Bringing him in, watching him die...

It would be impossible if Naruto remembered him. But since he didn't, it was a feat that Sasuke was definitely capable of.

"You shouldn't talk." The guard said, "or rattle the chains. We don't like it."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, recalling the way Naruto flinched when Sasuke rattled the chains earlier.

"What'll happen if I do?"

And because he didn't like being told what to do, Sasuke pushed against the restraints until they echoed across the halls.

And the chains broke.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto couldn't remember escaping.

All he knew was that in one moment, he was in a cellar with chains restraining his wrists, and in the next, he was outside with an unfamiliar man grasping his arm with bruising force. The man was taller than him, but only barely. He dragged Naruto behind him like he was a doll, and his eyes were red and black. They swirled like the _thing_ that often showed up on Naruto's stomach, and for some reason, Naruto thought that those eyes should have been black instead of red.

"I think I need to go back." Naruto said.

The man whipped his body around, eyes half lidded until they were set into a glare that Naruto knew he _should have _been afraid of. But for some reason, he felt as though that glare was familiar. Not evil or bad or wrong. Just familiar, and it didn't scare him.

"Go back?" The man said, "what for?"

The man's arms were caked with blood that wasn't his, and Naruto looked down at himself. His shirt, which had been white when he arrived but was now a dark gray, had crimson smeared all over the front. His arms were sticky and wet with blood— just like the man's—and he licked his teeth only to taste a familiar and bitter flavor.

"I don't know."

A sense of dread and panic settled in his stomach until it churned. His wrists were empty of metal, and there was something so _wrong_ with that because those chains were too important to be removed. He _needed_ them. For what, he didn't know. But they kept something inside of him sane and at bay.

And now, whatever it was that couldn't escape could easily be set free.

"I need to go back." He said.

And he wished he knew why.

"And I think it's important."

* * *

Sasuke, for the first time in a long while, finally understood why Naruto had been locked up.

It had been nagging at the back of his mind ever since he discovered Naruto's location weeks ago. He didn't dare dwell on it because that meant having to remember the times that Sasuke would rather forget. But he still knew that putting Naruto in chains was no easy feat. Not unless he did something incredibly stupid while fighting.

Which, Sasuke had to admit, had been his first thought. Naruto was known for being stupid. It wouldn't surprise him if that had been his demise.

The dark of night shrouded them well enough. Sasuke hadn't bothered with killing those guards. They simply weren't worth the effort. But now that they were outside, it was easier to maneuver around. They were still on prison grounds, so the light of torches and fire revealed the guards position, and Sasuke had his sharingan activated as he kept ahold of Naruto's wrist as he dragged him along.

He clenched his teeth. He should have known that Naruto wouldn't have stayed captured for so long. Not unless he was a willing participant in becoming a prisoner. Even chakra cuffs wouldn't be enough to keep him restrained, because the muscle and strength he built over the years could easily break those chains that kept him still.

Not that he had much muscle anymore. Naruto's arms were nothing but skin and bones. Every workout he did as a genin atrophied in his time in that cellar, and it could be a long while before he regained even a little of that strength.

Something burned in his throat as he looked Naruto up and down. This Naruto was not the one Sasuke once knew. No. He was someone else—more Kyuubi than Naruto, with how his nails were elongated and yellow—but even the Naruto that Sasuke knew no longer resided.

At least, not now. Not _yet_.

The chakra cuffs seemed to keep Kyuubi at bay, which in turn, gave Naruto a semblance of lucidity. All Sasuke had to do was gather his own chakra cuffs and make sure Naruto did not turn into Kyuubi as he did in the prison.

Except that lucidity seemed to decimate regardless of Kyuubi's presence, most likely a result of isolation and humiliation as he went about his days sitting in a dank cellar with chains that kept him bound to the wall.

And when Sasuke removed them, the first thing Naruto—_Kyuubi_—did was bite through the guards throat.

He took a shaky breath, closing his eyes as he recalled the way blood splattered all over the walls as Naruto's teeth dug deeper and deeper into the guards throat.

He still remembered the hideous squelch as the initial bite penetrated the skin.

And Sasuke shuddered. Even _he_ couldn't withstand watching such a death.

But right now, Naruto seemed to be more lucid. Whatever possession Kyuubi put him in earlier had disappeared, if only for a little while, and Sasuke intended to take advantage while it lasted.

It didn't stop the red from seeping into his blue eyes, though. And as Sasuke glanced back at Naruto, who lagged behind with tired eyes and a reddened face, he was reminded of the fact that Naruto was not who he used to be, and that was a reminder that Sasuke did not want to recall.

He swallowed. Now that they were far away from the prison, they walked at a slower pace. Naruto still struggled to keep up, however, and he relied on the way Sasuke tugged and dragged his arm. After he insisted on going back to the prison, Sasuke began to understand that whatever possession Kyuubi had him under withered away, but soon enough his eyes bled crimson and blue and crimson again until they were trapped in a state of red _and _blue.

And once his eye color held steady onto those two colors, he'd fallen into some sort of trance and had yet to be released from it.

But rather than sitting around and waiting for Naruto to screw something up, Sasuke grabbed him and walked away.

* * *

They couldn't have a campfire without alerting someone of their position, and with the war raging, they couldn't afford to be seen. Even so, as Sasuke watched Naruto struggle to adapt to a rather drastic change in atmosphere, he wondered if giving away their position would be worth it.

"What are we doing?" Naruto said. His teeth were chattering like the chains that once rattled on his wrists. Sasuke only decided to stop and rest because Naruto was barely standing. All that walking, he supposed, might have been too much.

Sasuke cringed. The Naruto he knew could have, and would have, kept going even if he didn't have the strength.

The weather wasn't even that bad, but Naruto was acting as though the wind was biting into his bones. Sometimes, when the trees blew hard enough for the leaves and branches to crash into each other, he flinched. Shivers wracked his body despite the blanket Sasuke gave him, but there wasn't much else he could do.

The blanket didn't seem to help at all, and Sasuke hadn't expected it to. He only carried a thin, mostly unused blanket around. Naruto had wrapped himself up like a cocoon, and yet, despite the fact that a thin blanket should have been enough to keep him warm, his lips turned a light shade of blue.

Sasuke furrowed his brows. A fire _would _help considerably.

It would likely result in a battle, too.

A battle that Naruto was not equipped to fight in.

Sasuke sighed as he reached for his water bottle. He brought it to his ear, swirled it around, and frowned. There wasn't much left, and he didn't know where the nearest river was.

He held it out for Naruto to take.

"You should drink something." He said. Naruto's throat bobbed as he looked down at the bottle. His lips were still covered in blood, But he didn't move to grab the bottle. Instead, he snuggled closer into the blanket.

Sasuke set the bottle against Naruto's leg. An easy place for him to reach. "I'll just set it here, then. Take it when you want it."

Sasuke nibbled on his lip. He couldn't remember the last time he even saw Naruto, let alone had him in such a vulnerable position. Madara would most certainly be happy by this development. The ten tails would be twice as easy to revive with Naruto's weakened state. All Sasuke had to do was bring him in and let Madara do the rest.

He furrowed his brows. It sounded so easy, and yet, he'd waited weeks to act because Sasuke wasn't ready for this.

Might never be ready.

"It'll be warmer when the sun comes up."

Naruto was as unresponsive as ever.

"I recommend you get some sleep."

* * *

Naruto didn't sleep much that night.

Sasuke knew this by the way he shifted and shivered all night long. Seldom did he snore, but when he did, something always startled Naruto awake. Be it the wind or the trees. Multiple times Naruto moaned in frustration. If Sasuke had stayed in the prison, he had no doubt that Naruto would be moaning like that constantly. Those chains couldn't have been comfortable, after all. And Sasuke suspected there had been several sleepless nights.

Even so, Sasuke didn't say a word. He didn't want to. Naruto may have been cold and miserable, but Sasuke didn't want to join that misery by adding a conversation. And at some point Naruto must have gotten fed up, because he sat up to glare at Sasuke. His eyes were still that red-blue mix, and Sasuke had to wonder what that meant.

It couldn't be good, though. Nothing concerning Kyuubi ever was.

It was when the sun was just barely on the horizon that Naruto did something Sasuke could not have predicted. He slowly, _agonizingly_, lifted himself up with trembling arms, as if the weight of his own body was too much to bear, and once he finally got himself on his hands and knees, he crawled over to Sasuke.

When he kneeled just inches away from Sasuke, Naruto looked up at him with those eyes. The ones that were mostly blue and hardly held any red. The bruises under those eyes were so dark and sunken that Sasuke wondered how sleep evaded him at all. His shivers, which had been terrible before, wracked him with a deadly force now. It must have been painful. Staying awake when you're exhausted and freezing without any warmth. Had Sasuke cared even a little bit, he might have offered to help. But Naruto was dead to him. Had been dead for years now, and that wasn't changing just because Sasuke wasn't allowed to kill him before Madara extracted Kyuubi.

Besides, Naruto put himself in this position. It wasn't Sasuke's job to fix that.

"Can I—" Naruto said, lifting his arm to point at him. Sasuke quirked a brow. He'd have to do better than that if he wanted Sasuke to understand.

"What?"

Naruto bruised his bottom lip as he lowered his eyelids. His gaze travelled down to the ground, body still trembling from cold and pain. Sasuke was half-tempted to wrap his arms around Naruto to keep him warm. At least that way, Sasuke might not have to deal with that terrible chattering of teeth.

And Naruto wouldn't be in as much pain.

Sasuke pointed to the place Naruto previously laid at, and Naruto breathed in sharply before backing off. But instead of crawling all the way over there, he moved a few inches before letting his body collapse.

_Good_.

He didn't know what Naruto wanted to ask, but Sasuke ignored the way Naruto's face had recoiled and was glad he didn't finish the question.

And by the time the sun came up, Naruto had fallen into a light slumber. His snores were light, almost like a wheeze, but once he fell into a deep enough sleep, he would be much, much louder.

Too loud for Sasuke's liking.

It didn't take much to wake him. Not like it used to. All Sasuke did was lightly shake his shoulder and Naruto was crawling away from him with a gasp. His eyes were bloodshot, raw, and within seconds he clenched them shut. Sasuke glanced around them. The sun, while being something Naruto absolutely adored, hadn't been in his sight for God knew how long.

"Well shit…" Sasuke said.

He'd forgotten that Naruto must have seen little to no light in his time at that place, and if he could barely handle some cold wind, the sun would be far too bright for those eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Sasuke kept Naruto blindfolded after

that.

It wasn't a real blindfold. But instead a shirt that Sasuke was never going to use again. Naruto's shoulders sagged the moment Sasuke wrapped the cloth around his eyes. It must have been so relieving to see darkness once again. But it was a shame. Naruto absolutely loved the outdoors, the sun, the wind and the trees. He loved everything about it. But now, his eyes had turned against him, and his body was so weak any warmth it might have scavenged was used to preserve energy.

There was no more room for Naruto to enjoy things anymore. He was now, and would be for a long time, in survival mode.

And because Sasuke wasn't a monster, he wanted Naruto to remember something good about life before Madara killed him, so it was Sasuke's job to get him out of this phase of dissociation.

So he made a list of tasks that he needed to accomplish. The first was finding shelter. More than likely there would be an abandoned cabin somewhere in these forests. The area seemed rather empty of enemies or people, which made it an ideal spot for settling until Naruto regained his memory. Sasuke would have to teach him how to fight, of course. Though Naruto's body was sure to remember that part. It was his mind that would have forgotten.

After that was food and water. Sasuke was running too low on supplies, and now that he had to feed two instead of one, it would go down twice as fast.

Sasuke held onto Naruto's shoulders to guide him around. With the blindfold, it would be impossible for him to know which way he was supposed to go. So Sasuke had no choice but to give vague instructions and turn Naruto's body when they needed to move in another direction.

"Are we looking for something?" Naruto said.

His voice was rough, almost like a rasp. He hadn't drunk any of the water that Sasuke offered, so his throat must have been so dry that it would ache. Sasuke hadn't stopped offering him that water. He didn't know when the last time the guards gave him anything to drink was, and as far as Sasuke knew, Naruto needed it far more than he ever would.

"Shelter."

Naruto bobbed his head. His hair was a wild bird-nest of tangles. Blond locks strayed upwards and sideways despite the fact that his hair now reached his shoulders. Sasuke would have to provide a haircut if Naruto wanted it. And he undoubtedly would, as Naruto never wanted to have long hair prior to this.

His wrists, which had been raw and red while in the prison, had completely healed. Sasuke couldn't remember when that happened. But it at least meant that Naruto wasn't in nearly as much pain.

It also meant Kyuubi could take over any moment.

"I have a question." Sasuke said, "and I don't know if you'll have the answer."

Naruto craned his head to where he assumed Sasuke was. They still had yet to find a river or a lake, so his face was matted in dirt and blood. The taste must have been absolutely horrifying, especially with how the blood seeped onto his tongue.

"What is it?"

Sasuke pressed his hands to both sides of Naruto's head and urged him to face forward. The twigs and branches and leaves and rocks made navigating him around especially difficult. More often than not, he was stumbling over an unseen obstacle. And if an obstacle didn't make him sway, his weakened body certainly did.

"What's wrong with the seal?"

"I don't know."

Sasuke pursed his lips. It was suspicious, to say the least, that Kyuubi hadn't done anything after they left the prison. His blue and red eyes changed somewhere in the night so now there was more blue than red. But by the way Sasuke's stomach churned at those eyes, he knew that this wasn't the end of it.

Kyuubi was going to act. It was simply a matter of _when _and _how. _

"What do you remember of Konoha?"

Naruto froze. His body, which had been slowly relaxing the more time they spent together, stiffened like a board. He hadn't smiled even once in all the time they were together. It was strange. Naruto always had a wide range of feelings when Sasuke was around. From anger and hurt and pain to happiness and relief. To see him now—hurting, confused, and stiff—it was unnatural.

This was not the ray of sunshine that Sasuke longed for in the past.

"I don't like to think about that life."

Sasuke quirked a brow. _Didn't like to _think_ about it?_

Something hot nestled inside his chest. An irritation. Annoyance. Burden. It was a feeling he had several times in his life, but not quite like this. Not with this… mild severity. So imperceptibly small it was almost impossible to acknowledge. Like it was there but not there. Like an insect crawling up your arm. Hard to find but easy to feel. Had Sasuke not been paying attention, he might have missed it. Might have ignored it completely. And although he didn't know what to call it, it bothered him enough that he stopped moving and spun Naruto around until he faced Sasuke completely, only, and much to his disappointment, to make eye contact with a blindfold.

Sasuke scoffed. Where were those eyes when he wanted to look at them?

He repressed a moan of frustration, raking a hand through his hair as the bottom half of Naruto's face didn't even move.

Not a frown. Not a smile. Not even a grimace.

Nothing.

Just nothing.

"What is _wrong_ with you?"

The feeling spread to his stomach, only it was more dreadful, like a rock plummeting through his body. It wasn't a soothing feeling, nor was it painful. But Sasuke didn't understand it, and that made it so much worse because it meant he was confused.

Except that was impossible because Sasuke didn't _get _confused.

The problem with everything Naruto said was that it meant he _did _remember. That Sasuke's name was on the tip of his tongue and Tsunade and Sakura and everything Konoha, was a memory lodged inside a door with a key that he didn't _want_ to unlock.

And that made it so much worse. Not because Naruto remembered him, but because he _chose_ not to.

"You remember everything." He said.

It came out more accusatory than he wanted it to. But that was how it was supposed to be, wasn't it? Naruto remembered everything and had the audacity to just ignore it. To pretend he didn't know Sasuke. To fake _everything_.

Sasuke never thought he was capable of such a thing. And to make Sasuke _think _he was telling the truth—

He shook his head. How could he not know that Naruto was lying?

"No."

"But you just said—"

"Forget what I said!"

Naruto's waved his hand sin the air, jaw clenched. His lips were slightly blue and swollen, and Sasuke wondered if he'd been biting. They continued walking through the forest. Sasuke grasping his shoulders and leading Naruto around. The crickets chirped constantly, as if they needed something to fill the silence.

"I'm not talking about this." Naruto said as he craned his head. "Who even _are_ you?"

And that was the moment when Sasuke realized he had yet to reintroduce himself.

_Stupid_.

He'd been so caught up in everything else that it slipped his mind. Even in that cellar, when Naruto put on a marvelous act of memory loss, Sasuke had forgotten that this Naruto did not remember him.

But now that he knew Naruto _did_ remember, he scowled.

"Why don't you dive into memories you _do_ remember and tell _me_?"

Naruto's body jerked. His hands moved to the blindfold, but as he tried to slide it off, he hissed and almost fell as the sun infiltrated his eyes.

"All I know is that you're the voice who's annoying and awesome and terrible and really, really, stupid."

"Stupid?"

Sasuke was not, and had never been, stupid.

He was a fucking genius.

"How could I possibly be—"

"Because you are! You've made some huge ass stupid decisions."

Sasuke's eye twitched. "And what decisions would that be?"

And he was ready for it. All the accusations. The crimes he committed. The terrible, terrible decisions and actions Sasuke made against Naruto.

A part of him wanted to hear it just so he knew that Naruto _did_ hate him. That the forgiveness and love and friendship Naruto showed earlier was fake, because it was far too freaky and way too much. Sasuke didn't want to see that forgiveness nor did he want that friendship. He just wanted this to be easy. And for that to be possible, Naruto had to hate him.

Sasuke was even ready to face the facts of what he did in that valley.

It was hard to talk to Naruto without seeing his eyes, especially with a talk like this. But despite that, Sasuke was ready to hear it all. To listen as Naruto sprouted words of anger and hatred.

He'd been ready and waiting for years.

But it didn't come.

Instead, Naruto's shoulders lowered. His brows furrowed, and rather than a scowl or a glare or even a frown, he looked more confused, as if nothing that was said made sense.

Naruto's mouth opened and closed. He bit his lip. Thinking, thinking, thinking , but still having nothing to say.

Sasuke felt the linings of frustration dangle at his chest. He swallowed, a headache forming on his brows. Just what did Naruto want from him? Why was he lying? Why do any of this?

Why not break out of that prison?

"I don't know." Naruto said, "it's—just a feeling, I think. That you've done some bad things."

Sasuke's jaw clenched. That didn't make any sense.

_So move the fuck on. _

He didn't have time for this nonsense and instead gave Naruto a harsh tug forwards. Naruto stumbled, just as Sasuke expected, but he didn't let Naruto fall.

"We'll talk about this later." Sasuke said.

_And you better have answers._

* * *

As Sasuke expected, there was an abandoned cabin off the pathway. It wasn't in good shape, but it would protect them through the cold nights and winter. Vines and grass and trees overwhelmed the building so much that he almost missed it. But once Sasuke cut away all the nature that grew, they found a small, wooden cabin.

Sasuke removed the blindfold from Naruto's eyes. Sunlight seeped through the cracks. But it wasn't enough to hurt. And for a while, Naruto squinted as his eyes adjusted. It might not have been _that_ bright, but he'd grown accustomed to complete darkness, and this was not that. So as Naruto blinked and blinked and blinked, Sasuke waited until those bloodshot eyes finally calmed enough. Tears spilled down his cheeks throughout it all. Sasuke didn't know how painful it could be to have your eyes so strained like that. He'd never had the problem before, but he neither dwelled on it nor did he care.

He just watched.

And Naruto didn't complain.

"Do you need anything?" Sasuke said.

Naruto glanced warily at him. Sasuke had yet to reintroduce himself, but that was only because Naruto admitted to remembering. If this was all a ruse to trick Sasuke, then he wasn't falling for it.

Naruto shrugged. "Like what?"

"I don't know. Water?"

Naruto shook his head. His bangs had grown so long that it covered most of his eyes. Sasuke hadn't noticed before, not in the dead of night and certainly not with that blindfold. But he was in desperate need of a haircut.

And a shower.

That blond hair was no longer blond, after all, and had turned into a dark shade of brown.

It was so greasy it looked wet.

"I'm gonna go find a river." Sasuke said, "stay here. I'll get you when I find one, and I might even find food along the way."

Naruto blinked owlishly. He sat on the bed of the cabin, legs crossed, and arms spread out behind him. There dirt matting his face smeared enough that it almost looked like dried blood.

And for all Sasuke knew, it _was_ blood.

"Get some rest while I'm gone. You look tired."

And he did. With bags as dark as the night sky and limbs so scrawny he might have been a doll, it was impossible to know how Naruto managed to walk as far as they did. By all means, he _should _have collapsed at least ten times on their way. But he didn't. Instead, just like the Naruto Sasuke knew, he kept moving without complaint.

Well, the Naruto he knew _would_ have complained. A lot. But there couldn't have been much room for that in the prison.

"How long?" Naruto asked.

"How long what?"

Naruto stood up slowly. With shaking arms and a stumble to his step. Or perhaps that was a limp. Sasuke hadn't noticed it before.

_Whatever. _

He rolled his eyes as Naruto slowly, with increasing sluggishness, moved towards Sasuke until he had a firm grasp of the hem of his shirt. He gave a small tug, like a child who didn't want to let go of their parent, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

_Dear god... _He thought.

Naruto hadn't grown attached, had he?

"What are—" He said.

"Will you be gone?"

Sasuke cocked his head. "Huh?"

Naruto's throat bobbed as he swallowed. "How long?"

"I'm just… looking for a river."

Naruto released his shirt. "That's not an answer."

Sasuke pushed Naruto. Not hard enough to hurt or to make him fall. Just to make him stumble again. Like he'd been doing this entire day.

And he left without looking back.


	5. Chapter 5

He still didn't know the man's name.

When Naruto first saw him, with only a vague voice telling him that this man was both his worst enemy and his closest companion, he thought there would be trouble. That Naruto would remain forever in that prison and the man would die just like the others.

But that didn't happen, and now he was free.

"Free."

He latched onto the word, tasted it on his tongue, felt the rhythm as it rolled through his throat. The meaning behind the word was lost. There was a time, he knew, where freedom was all he ever had. He would run and play and love and laugh and he even caught a couple of bad guys along the way.

But although it was on the forefront of his mind, almost like he could simply reach out and grab it, the memory dissipated when his fingertips brushed the edge.

He imagined himself holding it in his palm, savoring it, loving it, _remembering_ it.

He wanted to watch his life tick by with a soothing voice whispering _this is how it's supposed to be. _

And it would be _his_. All that time with his friends, his family.

_Sasuke. _

He wanted to remember it so bad that it hurt.

But he just couldn't reach it.

The tingle of rightness and warmth

spread through him during the trek through the forest, and it had only grown stronger the more time they spent together. There was something familiar about the man, but it was also unfamiliar, _alien_, like this wasn't who he was supposed to be with, and yet it felt so right that he just couldn't let go.

The man didn't seem to like him much, but he also cared enough that he didn't hurt Naruto. In fact, he'd done the opposite and helped him when the sun burned and burned and burned.

Naruto swallowed. He _knew_ this man. Knew him like no other, but like all the other memory's, he just couldn't see it.

So as he laid on the bed, knees propped up and eyes counting the cracks in the ceiling, he wondered how long the man would be.

Time moved on like his memories. Dissipating and fast. Naruto didn't always notice it ticking, but eventually, the moon drowned out the light and Naruto could rest assured that his eyes would no longer hurt.

There were thirty cracks in the ceiling.

And the man was taking far too long.

"A river." He muttered.

He blinked owlishly, surprised to find himself standing halfway between the bed and the door. He could tell by the way sunlight shown through the cracks that it was morning. Possibly afternoon.

He couldn't remember when the sun came up.

Or when it went down.

He glanced behind him, grimacing at that bed because he felt every spring beneath his back while he lay atop it. But now he was standing, and the door was there and waiting and Naruto didn't want to be alone anymore.

So he left.

And his eyes still burned.

* * *

Sasuke kicked a rock.

He ignored the way his toes throbbed as a result. Truly, he should have brought close toed shoes. Not flimsy sandals that fell apart and put him as risk of stubbing his fucking toe.

Even so, it was more than Naruto had.

He scoffed. As if _that_ _person_ mattered. Pretending to forget Sasuke—just who did he think he was?

"And he calls _me_ an asshole."

He hated it.

Hated _him_.

He narrowed his eyes, recalling the slippery feel of Naruto's blood on his hands.

He should have killed him years ago. It would have been been a mercy towards everyone.

Madara wouldn't have bothered with the war had Kyuubi been dead, after all. Maybe all of this could have been avoided.

He shook his head. As if the war even mattered. It didn't effect Sasuke. Merely wiped out most of the population and left the strong one's standing.

He wondered where his former friends were sometimes, but always dismissed those thoughts as irrelevant.

They were probably dead, anyways.

The sun fell and rose, and Sasuke knew that he should be heading back. Naruto wasn't a patient person. He wouldn't enjoy sitting there alone for so long.

And Sasuke never did find a river.

He got too distracted.

"It's his fault."

He kicked another rock.

_Everything_ was Naruto's fault.

He turned around and started heading back. Naruto probably slept the day away, and by god he needed that sleep. But at the same time, the bitter part of himself, the one that told him to turn Naruto in right now, wanted Naruto to suffer and be wrought with insomnia like he did the night before.

He hated himself for even thinking it. Hated the way a part of himself cared for that selfless, idiotic, stupid man who Sasuke used to call a friend.

"Tch."

He pressed the emotions down, pulled himself into numbness. Put himself in a state of not caring.

And it _worked_.

So instead of feeling self-hate and regret and loss for the Naruto that Sasuke found in that cellar, he instead felt nothing.

It was better that way.

And when he finally reached the cabin, he found it empty.

* * *

The man would be by a river.

That was what Naruto told himself. So he listened for the waves, the current, the soft whoosh of water clacking against rocks. He heard it even as he stood inside that cabin. It was so quiet that had the birds chirped, he might have missed it. But the birds did not chirp, and the soft sound of water filled his ears.

He liked the sound.

So he followed it. Not because he wanted water. No. The man left his canteen for Naruto to use. But he never did drink. Water was always laced with something that made him shake and shiver and feel terrible for days and days. So he preferred to avoid it. The guards, noticing that tendency, must have feared for his life, because they started shoving it down his throat.

His stomach churned, even just the idea of what they did to him making him want to vomit.

But that man would be by the river. He had to be, because Naruto was so sick and tired of being alone and that man was so, so nice.

But when he reached the water, the man wasn't there.

He bit down the sense of disappointment. There was a lot of land to cover. This one area of a river was not where the man was at. But surely he was at another part. Maybe he decided to go for a swim. Or perhaps he was filling himself with buckets and buckets of water. Or maybe he did find food and was cooking it up for them both.

Either way, Naruto started following the current, and he didn't stop until he came face to face with the man who he'd been searching for.

"I told you to rest." The man said, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

Naruto cocked his head. "I think I did."

But if he somehow did manage to close his eyes and sleep, it wasn't restful. He didn't feel like he'd rested. Because his eyes were still aching and so were his legs and his shoulders and everything hurt.

But he was used to it. So he ignored it.

"You left, Naruto. Leaving is not resting."

Naruto blinked. The man was standing only a few feet in front of him. He was taller than Naruto, but only by a foot.

For some reason, Naruto thought that was important.

"Can you tell me who you are?"

He desperately, desperately wanted to know.

The man snorted. "Why ask when you already know?"

Naruto pursed his lips. He was asking because he _didn't_ know. Why couldn't this man see that?

"I can't reach it." He said.

"What?"

"The memory. It's there and then it's gone. It never stays long enough for me to see."

And he didn't know how to salvage it.

"Tell me, please. I want to know."

The man looked him up and down, eyes searching for something that Naruto couldn't identify.

His eyes softened, the glare morphing into a gaze, and the man held out his hand.

Naruto took it.

"Sasuke." The man said, "that's my name."

Naruto grinned. That name sounded familiar.

That name was one he loved.


	6. Chapter 6

The idea of bathing, something Naruto hadn't done in so long, hadn't been on the forefront of his mind since the _before._

Cleanliness was a luxury. It wasn't given to him, so he learned to live with the dirt in his hair or the blood on his body. So when Sasuke asked if he wanted a bath, Naruto had to take a step back, because it was a question he hadn't thought about in forever.

A bath. Cleanliness. A way to rid his mouth of the taste of blood.

It seemed too good to be true, and yet it was entirely possible.

There was still blood on his lips, grease in his air, dirt on his face. His clothes were ragged and old. Patches of skin shown through the holes of his shirt.

He needed a bath. Desperately.

So he took off his clothes and sunk his body into the river.

Sasuke remained on land. He focused his gaze on the tree on the other side of the water, but sometimes Naruto caught him staring.

Sasuke quickly looked away when they made eye contact.

Soap was also a luxury, one they did not have, so Naruto was only washing away the dirt and the blood. He wouldn't get completely clean, but it would do _something_. And it was more than he could have asked for in that prison.

Naruto jumped as Sasuke coughed, and he turned around only to find that Sasuke was done pretending he wasn't staring.

His eyes were completely and utterly black.

"I'll do your hair if you'd like." Sasuke said.

Naruto blinked owlishly. His hair was soaked to the brim, droplets of water falling like rain, but it was no where near done.

"I think I got it." He said as he raked his hand through his hair, "lotta twigs up there, though. I think it's tangled."

Sasuke looked back to the tree.

* * *

"What do you remember?" Sasuke asked.

They were on their way back to the cabin. Naruto couldn't remember the way back, or how he'd even gotten to the river. His hair was back to its golden hue, and all the blood and dirt was gone.

He felt better than he had in a long time.

"I don't know."

Sasuke slowed down. He'd been eerily silent throughout it all, even more so than Naruto would have thought. He had a feeling that Sasuke wasn't much of a talker, but Naruto still didn't like how he said _nothing_.

"Yes you do. You have to. So what do you remember?"

"I don't—"

"Sakura, Tsunade, Konohagakure, Konohamaru, Sai, Kakashi. Anything ring a bell?"

Naruto furrowed his brows. Those words made something tug at his chest. It was pleasant and terrible and hard to decipher.

But he didn't know what any of those words _meant_.

He glanced around the forest. The leaves bristled with the wind and twigs snapped with every step they took. Not a person was in sight. It was just him and Sasuke in a forest where only trees and animals resided.

He pushed at Sasuke's shoulder, not enough to hurt. Just one, gentle push. Like what a friend would do. Like he'd done in the past. In the _before_.

He really didn't know what Sasuke meant. All those memories, so close that it drove him mad, were still too far away.

"I told you—"

But something must have gone wrong, because the next thing he knew, Sasuke was standing in front of him, blocking his path forward.

"That you don't remember. Yes, you've made that clear. But you also said that you could almost _see_ it"

He did say that, didn't he? And it was true. He _could _almost see it, but it was just out of reach, so he didn't try any further. It was better that way. The headaches he got when he tried to remember were brutal, and the memories themselves, the few he did have access to, weren't all that pleasant.

So it _was _more than the inability to remember. Because Naruto simply didn't _want_ to.

"I never said—"

"That it was just out of reach?"

And Sasuke just had to have a good memory, didn't he?

He closed his eyes shut. Yes, it _was_ out of reach. So far that he couldn't possibly grasp it, but it was still there. He could feel _something _ that had answers to all his questions, but he didn't know how to reach it.

Didn't know if he _wanted_ to reach it.

"It's not like it's something to catch or anything."

Sasuke frowned. His eyes hadn't turned red since they were in the prison, but Naruto liked it that way. Liked those eyes. The ones that were black and beautiful and endless depths of charcoal.

He cast his gaze downward. Twigs and leaves were strewn all over the ground. The grass was as a green as the most watered meadow.

"You're right. It'll be much harder than that." Sasuke said. He reached for Naruto's hand. "I'll tell you what. You drink some water, and I'll help you get your memories back. Deal?"

"No."

Sasuke blinked. "You do want them back, don't you?"

It was then that Naruto saw a batch of pink, a color even more familiar than the man standing in front of him. And pinked belonged to a girl with green eyes who had been there when Sasuke wasn't.

A girl who Sasuke tried to kill.

A girl who tried to kill Sasuke without consulting Naruto first.

And he knew her.

Loved her.

Wanted her.

"Of course I do."

But did he?

Did he truly want to remember?

Did he want to know what happened to that girl? If Sasuke truly did kill her?

"Then drink some water."

"No."

Sasuke's eye twitched.

"Listen—"

"No!"

And despite everything, the face of a familiar boy who was once his teammate drove through his skull. Black hair, black eyes, pale skin, wearing clothes that bled blue and black.

He knew that boy, because he stood in front of Naruto now.

_Sasuke. _

It was him who left and never came back.

Naruto shook his head, clutching his hair as his head exploded into a million pieces. Images of a fight, so hard and dreary, infiltrated his mind. Sasuke was there for all of it. The blood, the pain, the betrayal.

Sasuke _caused_ it.

_He_ made this happen.

Made Tsunade so desperate that she locked Naruto up.

Naruto fell to his knees, hands pulling so hard at his hair that several strands fell, and he vomited.

Sasuke knelt down beside him and held onto his shoulders. He pulled Naruto's hair back, breath ghosting over Naruto's neck so much that he shuddered.

Sasuke, who hurt him and that girl, was _touching_ him.

_Helping_ him.

"Why?"

It made him sick. The idea that this boy hurt him, his loved ones, and was now trying to _help_. So Naruto grabbed the wrist holding his hair, clutched it so hard it would bruise.

"Get away from me." He said.

The words slipped past his lips in an angry hush. He couldn't remember ever having this much courage. But it felt more right than sitting idle with the knowledge that Sasuke was a murderer who hurt both Naruto and his friends.

But Sasuke didn't move. Didn't even bat an eye.

"You remember, don't you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and thrust himself at Sasuke. He punched him square in the jaw, sick satisfaction cackling through him when the bones crunched in a way that was so, so familiar.

He'd done this before. Not only with Sasuke. But with others.

"I said get away!"

And Sasuke fought back twice as hard. So much that Naruto couldn't fight him anymore, because he was weaker than he used to be. His muscles had deteriorated, and he couldn't fight the way he used to.

_Pathetic_. He thought.

"I'm trying to help." Sasuke said, legs straddling his waist. Naruto turned his head to the side. Sasuke gripped both his arms over his head, kept him pinned to the ground like Naruto was some doll.

"No."

And then he was yanked up into a stand, his shoulders slouched, body trembling and breathing so heavy he might have passed out.

And again, he saw another memory, a valley full of blood. A hand in his chest.

_Sasuke's_ hand in his chest.

"You tried to kill me."

And Sasuke's blank expression was all the confirmation he needed.


End file.
